Strategic Hydra Intervention Enforcement and Logistics Division
by Captainofmanyships
Summary: Season two one shots- The team struggles to put SHIELD back together and keeping themselves from falling apart.
1. Chapter 1

**Hey Guys! So, this is going to follow season two pretty closely and I'll update anywhere from 1-3 times a week. I'd love to hear what you think I can improve and what you enjoyed and would like to see again. I love reviews, they make my whole week and bring huge smiles to my face (ask my bff we were on the phone when my first ever review came in). Thanks for taking time and reading! -Captainofmanyships**

**p.s. Last episode broke my heart into itty pieces. I literally could barely get up in the morning. My ship is sinking...**

Ward, he didn't care what Ward thought. He never wanted to see him again. But Simmons, she left him. And that hurt most. She left because she didn't love him, he knew that with one hundred percent certainty. She left because he changed. He wasn't the same. He never would be. Fitz's best friend, the one who he thought would always be by his side because he was prepared to do the same for her, abandoned him. He couldn't feel angry, he just felt numb. After all, he still has ghost Simmons. At least she hadn't left him. He knew though, in the back of his mind, she wasn't real. She'd never be real. As much as he tried to convince himself that Jemma had never left, eventually he'd fall apart. It was futile really. Delaying the inevitable. He already was falling apart, piece by piece. Everyday he woke up and Simmons was still gone, another piece fell out of place. He didn't blame her for leaving. He blamed Ward.

" I could have killed him too," Fitz mumbled under his breath, reminiscing on the events that had occurred that morning, meeting Ward in the basement, sucking what little oxygen was in his cell away.

"Oh Fitz, that's not like you. You aren't a killer." Alt Simmons whispered as they stood outside the lounge watching Coulson and the team de-brief the members of SHIELD in Portugal about their earlier mission.

"Yeah, well he..he…" Fitz groaned and slumped his head against the wall, struggling to put his thoughts into words.

"You're getting there, Fitz. Can't you see that?" Simmons placed a hand on his right shoulder, doing her best to comfort him. There was a long pause before Fitz finally looked up, giving fleeting look toward the lounge,

"I miss her." He whispered longingly. Alt Simmons sighed.

"We've talked about this. She left. She doesn't care about you anymore. You need to move on." She argued, what seemed like the umpteenth time to Fitz. There was one thing that his imaginary Simmons didn't have in common with the real Jemma: She was giving up on their relationship. Of course, this was only because she reflected how Fitz felt and he was the one giving up. "She's going to come back someday and not feel the same way you do. Move on, Fitz. Make friends, if you talked to the team-"

"I've tried talking to the team, Jemma!" Fitz interrupted. "I can't…I cant…Ugh!" He fumbled for words his hands balled into fists. "They don't understand….I'm still me. I still….I still want…I still want a monkey." He decided nodding his head once. "I still think the same I'm just…"

"Gradual on the output.' She finished for him, receiving a nod in return.

"I just wish they could all see that." He murmured.

"Oh they do Fitz! They just don't know how to act around you." Alt Simmons reassured.

"That makes me feel much better, Jemma." He grunted sarcastically. She chuckled.

"Come on, Fitz. Stick it out a little longer, you'll get there, I promise."

"I know. Its just…"

"Taking longer than you thought." She completed for him.

"Yeah. A lot longer."

But little did Fitz know how long it really would take.


	2. Chapter 2- Whatever The Cost

Chapter 2 Strategic Hydra….

[Takes place after "A Hen in the Wolf House" I don't own these characters, cause if I did, FitzSimmons would be happy]

Coulson stared down at his desk and traced his fingers over some of his latest alien markings. His brow furrowed in concentration, he did his best to keep his shaking hands from pulling out the knife and marking up his entire desk. He was in such a deep trance, that he didn't hear the door to his office open or the footsteps of his daughter-like figure make their way across the room.

"Coulson?" Her voice was loud, firm, and yet also a little frightened. His head jerked up, startled by the sudden voice in the quiet room.

"Skye, I didn't hear you come in," He brushed his papers and files over the markings and smiled at her. "What's up?"

She stood, unblinking, hands crossed over her chest. She looked down at his hands, noting the unmistakable tremor.

"Are you…" She paused inhaling a breath before continuing on, "Are you sure you're ok?"

Coulson looked down, nodding.

"I know as much as you do, Skye. And although I'd like to discern more about this alien graffiti, I feel fine." He'd gotten into a habit of lying, and although he wanted to tell Skye the truth, he couldn't bring himself to do it. Somehow telling her, 'I don't know what's going on with me; I don't know how long it'll be before I go bonkers' wasn't going to go over well.

"You'd tell me, if you thought something weird was happening, right?" She asked approaching his desk a little more.

"Weird things are already happening; I doubt they could get any weirder." He replied, easily dodging the question and also knocking on his wooden desk, just in case. Skye simply raised her eyebrows in uncertainty.

"Honestly, nothing would surprise me anymore. This time just a few months ago I would never have thought of Simmons as an undercover agent." She chuckled. "I don't know what you said to convince her into going, but it worked….What _did_ you say?" She inquired setting herself down in the chair opposite to Coulson. He looked at her, a hint of sadness playing behind his aged eyes.

"I didn't."

"Didn't…didn't what?"

"I didn't say anything. She knew I needed someone and volunteered."

"Simmons? Volunteering to go undercover? Really Coulson, what _actually_ happened?" She persisted again, stubbornly wanting to know just how he got the worst liar in existence to agree to hide underneath the planet's biggest threat.

"She asked me if she could go. Everything that's happened with Fitz, I think she needed some time to think, even if that was while working undercover."

Skye remained silent.

"She didn't leave because of Fitz, did she?"

Coulson shook his head.

"He's not just different, Skye. He's completely changed. I don't think Simmons knew how to react to that, and Fitz was expecting her to be his biggest help. When she wasn't, I think it came as a shock to both of them." He interrupted quickly. "She didn't leave because of _him._ She left because _she _didn't know how to treat him. She thought she was making his situation worse."

Skye was silent for a moment.

"But, they're FitzSimmons, how could she think she was making him worse when she's practically his other half, not to sound too cliché." She muttered the last part softly.

"She was making him worse."

"Coulson,-"

"Skye," he copied in the same mocking tone, "She was. Like I said, she didn't know how to treat him. He expected her too. Things got weird."

"They'll make up. They have too." She bolstered herself.

Coulson just watched her unmoving.

After a few hushed moments, Coulson's screen beeped, and a message from Jemma herself came up on the screen, bearing no new news on Hydra, simply guaranteeing that she was safe and unharmed. The screen faded out as quickly as it had lit up.

"Is she going to be ok?" Skye broke the piercing calm with her soft voice.

"Of course. I wouldn't ever let anything happen to her. I only let her go because I have a fail-safe in place." Coulson answered, reassuringly. "And, before you ask," he began as her mouth opened to speak, "I can't tell you what fail-safe, only that there is one."

She frowned.

"What if I figure it out?" She boasted standing up from the plush leather chair.

"You won't, but you can try." He bantered back, smirking at her childishness.

She threw a thumbs-up in his direction, beginning to march out of his office, calling behind her,

"Just you watch me."

He rolled his eyes, temporarily enjoying the moment of pre-hydra bliss before his vibrating hand decided to start back up. He sighed, these moments never lasted long, that's one thing he knew for sure he'd learned since becoming director. He wasn't sure how Fury had done it. No matter, he was in charge, and whatever it took, he'd get SHIELD back up on its feet. Whatever the cost.


End file.
